Two recent auto industry reports offer valuable insight into evolving dealer-consumer dynamics. These reports, created from research by the consulting companies Capgemini and McKinsey & Co., can help dealers prepare for this relational change. In the reports, Capgemini and McKinsey suggest that dealers must embrace this change to remain successful.

The word “should” is always around. Even in your private thoughts, should always shows up, making statements and providing unsolicited advice. There’s one bad thing about a should, however—it rarely takes action. Luckily, there is a word that keeps should away: “must.” You’ll always meet a must head on—no matter

Perhaps you’ve just returned from the 2015 NADA Convention, and feel you didn’t accomplish enough or meet your business objectives while attending the show. It’s a significant investment of time and money to attend trade shows, so you need to have a strategy to make the most of them. Here

Dealers have always used data to improve results, even if only pencil entries in the desk log or names in a Rolodex. Thankfully, the computer has made capturing and organizing data much more practical and useful. For example, a dealer using data mining can quickly extract insightful detail from customer

Every dealership from the smallest corner used-car lot to largest multi-location dealerships needs marketing to bring customers to their sales floors. Other than their need for marketing, however, their plans will look very different. Advertising a 5 location dealership group in Chicago will be very different from a single location

Over the past 30 years I’ve witnessed many changes in the car business; from the surge of Japanese automakers in the 80s to the shift to SUVs and trucks in the 90s, and recently the rise of hybrids and new technology. But the most significant change to the car business

I would like to start out by asking automobile dealers when was the last time that they evaluated the email process and email templates in their CRM systems. Seriously, when was the last time that you actually looked at what is being sent out and when it is being sent

There used to be a time, not so very long ago, when the ad plan for the typical dealership involved taking a phone call and answering the all important question…What do we want to put in the paper this week? The days when you could get away with just being

Watching a master bartender mix cocktails is a thing of beauty. Knowing the perfect blend of ingredients needed to deliver a flawless product is a skill that is envied by others. So too does the marketing manager strive for the perfect mix of budget allocations so that they can deliver